Windows Media Player no longer playing DVDs?

[Matthew A. Murray]

My machine is running Vista Ultimate, and I discovered the other day that
Windows Media Player no longer plays DVDs. It used to, but it doesn't now.
(Because I don't play DVDs on my computer very often, I have no way of
knowing exactly how long this has been going on.) When I try to play a DVD
in Media Player, I get the message that "Windows Media Player has stopped
working," with the explanation that "A problem caused the program to stop
working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a
solution is available." (It perhaps goes without saying that I have yet to
receive any such notification.) I'm provided with no other information
about the problem; only a Close Program button that shuts down Media Player.
I still seem to be able to play MP3s with Media Player, just not watch DVDs.
On a whim, I decided to load up Media Center to see if maybe that would make
a difference. While I still can't play DVDs, I at least get a different
error message: "Application Failure: A critical Windows Media Center
process has failed. Please restart the computer and try again. If the
problem persists, contact your hardware manufacturer for assistance."

I've spent some time searching the web for information about this problem,
and haven't really found anything helpful yet. Does anyone have any
suggestions on how I might be able to fix this? I really would like to be
able to watch DVDs on my computer again. Thanks.

--Matthew

 

[Subrosa]

I have Vista Business Edition and discovered that Media Player no longer
includes a Codec for
for playing DVD's. I had to purchase one online and download it to my
machine. I assume this is
also true for the Ultimate edition.

Run Media Player
From the menu, select Tools --> Plug-ins --> Download Plug-ins

This will take you to a web page where you can select from a number of
different plug-ins to purchase.
I chose the Roxio CiniPlayer which can be purchased on line for about
US$15.00. This plug-in has been
working well for me and I am completely satisfied with it.

Hope this helps...

 

[Edward]

I have Vista Business Edition and discovered that Media Player no longer
includes a Codec for
for playing DVD's. I had to purchase one online and download it to my
machine. I assume this is
also true for the Ultimate edition.

Run Media Player
From the menu, select Tools --> Plug-ins --> Download Plug-ins

This will take you to a web page where you can select from a number of
different plug-ins to purchase.
I chose the Roxio CiniPlayer which can be purchased on line for about
US$15.00. This plug-in has been
working well for me and I am completely satisfied with it.

Hope this helps...

What I don't understand is why Vista Home Premium plays DVD's very well and
Ultimate doesn't.

 

[Bill Condie]

It's Business ( and Basic) that doesn't.

What I don't understand is why Vista Home Premium plays DVD's very well
and Ultimate doesn't.

 

[Edward]

It's Business ( and Basic) that doesn't.

On of those inscrutable Vista reasonings.....

 

[Bill Condie]

Yeah, I'll NEVER understand the four levels, plus 2 European ones too

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

That indicates that a component is crashing. What's the fault data for this
event according to the Problem Reports and Solutions center?
http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#bucket
will help you look that up if you don't know how.

 

[David]

I had a problem with several programs stopping unexpectedly, including Media
Player, with the same kind of message.

At around the same time I ran sfc /scannow from the command prompt (as an
administrator) and found that SFC found problems that it couldn't repair.
(I don't recall the exact text.)

Anyway, I booted from my Vista disc and did a repair installation. The next
time I ran SFC, all was good there and I haven't had any program crashes
since. I assume that the problems were related.